Estimated between 80K to 100K people gathered in a snowstorm to voice their opposition to the Governor's proposal to squelch bargaining rights to the public unions. This after those same units offered the needed concessions.
Saturday's numbers surpassed the previous record set during the Viet Nam protests. Some would say there isn't much difference between the base feelings of the two. As noted through the day, this gathering brought out other middle-class groups and private union members not affected by the Governor's slash-n-burn policy.
Through the week, people from around the country had been buying food for the protesters from the restaurants long distance. Saturday, Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota paid $3K to Ian's Pizza, located right in the heart of the crowd. He fed allot of people today.
What did come to light however, is the fact that the KOCH Brothers are now a household name. Those vampires have a long history and people are now following their money. Remember Aunt Issa? Whoa. And they say the John Birch Society is dead.
One last fascinating note: Not only have the firefighters from around the state joined the protest, so have the police units that were sent in to forcibly break up the crowds. An amazing display of non-violent disobedience without so much as one arrest. Newburgh cant go a sunny day without a few.
7 comments:
I am all for unions having to make concessions as part of the bargaining process. But to try to take away their collective bargaining rights is wrong. It is like people want slaves as public employees. If this is the opinion locally, I say eliminate the whole Taylor law and let's go back into the early 1900's. If you want to eliminate the good parts (for labor) of the Taylor law then eliminate it all and give public employees the right to strike. For some jobs like teachers, you may be able to easily fill the positions because there are many qualified people waiting in the wings for jobs. But for most public sector jobs you will find that most don't want them.
Digging holes on the side of the highway, guarding prisoners, and sweeping floors are not exactly fun and fulfilling careers. And no matter what people say, you don't see them rushing out to get on the gravy train.
The "Kingston Freeman" - so I'm told - didn't cover the Kingston-based MoveOn Rally at all. Although the Times-Hearld did. As far as the internet - the usual fashion news (Hey, I like Cher's duds!) - etc. - appears to be - all too often - standing in the forefront. I'm glad you are covering it here Mike. I've (for what it is worth) been doing the same. Rather big time, actually - and I'm getting an awful lot of (blocked, thus far) computer attacks - which may or may not be related.
My opinion is that someone had to stand up and do something - and if the unions have the guts, moxi and power to lead the way - so be it.
I just hope they remember the little guy too. The average working-class non-union guys and gals that seem to be (in many instances) going along for the ride. [The 98 percent of those seriously hurting includes a horde of non-union folks, senior citizens, children, etc - as well...]
It seemed like the collective bargaining (unions / council) that I witnessed (to a degree) taking place around here was a good thing. It would be nice if everything could be speeded up a bit - and the people more infomed - but you can sure see a difference [right now, big time...] when a group (versus an individual) addresses an issue.
Peace.
NS
There was a distinct difference in how CNN and MSNBC addressed the Egypt and now Wisconsin protests.
Anyone who says the media has a liberal bias can now shut their mouth. They could have dragged Ed & Rachel in Saturday to show everyone the civil atmosphere in Madison. Instead, we were subjected to just Fox making up Union Hate Group stories with Breitbart footage.
How can these outfits call themselves Breaking News organizations when they give us a "Lock Up" marathon all weekend.
Here is an op-ed written by Vice President Henry Wallace in 1944. It appeared in The New York Times: ___________________________________
The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money and more power.
They claim to be superpatriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjugation.
"When you measure the actual pay levels and you control for people's ages and educational levels, public sector workers make less on average than people in the private sector. In Wisconsin, public sector workers on average, after you control properly, make about 8 percent less than private sector workers." -Robert Pollin
The truth eventually bleeds through the FOX rhetoric.
11:31 it isn't just fox rhetoric. It is the government propaganda. The Coumo administration announced today as part of their attempt to strong arm unions that the average state employee makes 67k. But if you see through the propaganda you will see that the average CESA worker makes 40k which is 6k below the state average for workers. Mr. Andrew was counting the non-union political appointees salaries which accounts for a nice healthy boost.
11:31 I'm told that the NY State pension system has about 140 BILLION Dollars in it,so it is doing very well.The most the politicians should do is keep that system in place and have the employees pay a little more in to it. The politicians already proved that they cannot be trusted with that type of money.401K's were put together by WALL STREET BANKERS and they proved they cannot be trusted with that type of money.The bankers still make money when we lose money.The pension system is the best way to go to make sure the government wont have to provide for us when we retire.We put money into social security and we should supplement that security by paying into a pension plan like the one NY State offers.
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